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HockeytownRules19

Phoenix Coyotes Forward Lines and Pairings

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Wojtek Wolski – Matthew Lombardi – Shane Doan

Taylor Pyatt – Vernon Fiddler – Lee Stempniak

Lauri Korpikoski – Martin Hanzal – Radim Vrbata

Petr Prucha – Petteri Nokelianen – Daniel Winnik

Adrian Aucoin – Sami Lepisto

Keith Yandle – Derek Morris

Ed Jovanovski – Zybnek Michalek

Ilya Bryzgalov

Updated (thanks Hockey23): Robert Lang has missed than past 17 games (but has been skating with the team so we'll see) and Mathieu Schneider didn't play their last game (possible injury) so we'll see

Their defense isn't half bad, but man talk about playoff experience as a whole, well lack there of. If Bryzgalov doesn't stand on his head, they have 0 chance.

Edited by HockeytownRules19

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They're a pretty clutch team this year and they seem to find that clutch goal at the last minute. That makes me worry. I've watched a few of their games and they never seem to actually be out of it. Somehow they can find a goal with a minute left. It's kind of how the Wings have been lately... remember that string of games when the Wings had multiple last second winners? The 'yotes have been that way for half the year.

I'm not terrified of them but I definitely think they deserve respect.

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Don't forget Phoenix had a ridiculous amount of shootout wings this year (19?) which inflates the point total somewhat.

As someone already said, Bryz needs to be their best player. I just hope the wings don't underestimate the team though as they obviously have something going for them.

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lol I went too far on that zero chance thing... but I do believe if Bryzgalov doesn't play well this could be an extremely short series.

Definitely-- Brygalov has been their MVP by far. If Holmstrom can get into his head early we're golden. We really need Holmer to have his mojo going because he's the guy who can completely get a goalie of their game.

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Don't forget Phoenix had a ridiculous amount of shootout wings this year (19?) which inflates the point total somewhat.

As someone already said, Bryz needs to be their best player. I just hope the wings don't underestimate the team though as they obviously have something going for them.

^this

The Yotes won so many games in the shoot outs. However, the Wings must not underestimate the Yotes because they really deserved to be 4th this season; for me, the Yotes are more dangerous than the Sharks to the Wings. Be honest, I never watched the Yotes' game this season but after I looked at the stats, I think it is safe to say the Wings' offenses are better than the Yotes. Since I never watched their games, I will leave D.

The last thing comes to goaltending. Howard has been great for us during the whole season but his playoff performance is questionable as this season is his first full NHL season in his career.

I am not terrifed by the Yotes but the key for the Wings in this series is how they can beat Bryz early. I hope the Wings take at least one game in Pheonix this week.

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The Yotes know that they can win simply by working harder than the Wings. They will certainly bring their A game. My hope is that the Wings take on the challenge and exceed their hustle and work ethic. If they do that then they should win.

I hope so for LGWs sake. I'd rather not see a lot of angry 35 page GDTs and a bunch of "lazy and sucks threads". (Unless they're the good kind of lazy and sucks threads).

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The lack of game breaking talent is going to hurt Phoenix IMO. The Wings have guys that are just money in the playoffs, Phoenix dont have those guys. If Bryzgalov falters at all, we got this.

My biggest fear, honestly, is if Schnieder and Lang do play in the playoffs. Former Wings always kill us, and those guys would be no exception.

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I wish Wolski would play for the Wings. Is he Polish does anyone know? I thought I heard somewhere he was, and his name is obviously from that part of the world.

And man...they have a few players that just dropped off considerably. Lang, Schneider, Jovo, what happened, guys?

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The lack of game breaking talent is going to hurt Phoenix IMO. The Wings have guys that are just money in the playoffs, Phoenix dont have those guys. If Bryzgalov falters at all, we got this.

My biggest fear, honestly, is if Schnieder and Lang do play in the playoffs. Former Wings always kill us, and those guys would be no exception.

i agree with this -- with the exception that bryz IS a major gamebreaking talent. i think you were getting at offensive production, though, and there i agree.

obviously, a lot of our guys have not had their best offensive year and wolski will obviously be a big factor, as he earned a point-per-game with phoenix and has the most points out of any one on the team. but other than him, their best total point-getter is shane doan with 55 points in 82 games (.67 PPG). lombardi isn't bad, either, but to me, wolski-lombardi-doan does not match up with franzen-datsyuk-homer. and when guys like datsyuk and zetterberg can shut down crosby and malkin, i don't think they should have too much trouble containing phoenix's top guys.

it seems like they have a fair number of guys that *can* hurt you, but most of them have not had huge seasons this year. our defense will have to be tight, but i just see our potential offensive output as being much greater than theirs. we outscored them by a few total goals in the regular season, but considering how bad we were playing at times and how many man games we missed, you have to imagine that the detroit offense outpaces phoenix's greatly.

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Guest DatsyukianDeke13

Bryz is the only person on that team I am worried about. If he doesn't stand on his head, Wings are gonna take it, easy. (however, howard may need to do the same....)

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I do have faith that Babs and Co. will study endless hours of video and come up with a good game plan.

I do worry a little about Jimmy though. He needed some losses to get used to playing in the NHL this year. Hopefully he'll do whatever he has to do in order to play well.

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Bryz is the only person on that team I am worried about. If he doesn't stand on his head, Wings are gonna take it, easy. (however, howard may need to do the same....)

i agree, but the odds that bryz DOES stand on his head are regrettably high.

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Guest DatsyukianDeke13

I do have faith that Babs and Co. will study endless hours of video and come up with a good game plan.

I do worry a little about Jimmy though. He needed some losses to get used to playing in the NHL this year. Hopefully he'll do whatever he has to do in order to play well.

We need our D on their game the whole entire playoffs. I have confidence in Howie if the D plays well in front of him. Its when we have defensive lapses and he gets hung out to dry that Wings find themselves in trouble.

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The only name there I really worry about is Bryz. Doan seems to play well against the Wings, as does Jovo. The first line is easily matched up against one of our 2 top lines, most likely Homer-Dats-Franz. I think Babs will keep Dats and Z separate until they come up against a really dangerous 1st line, or if the Yotes somehow win a couple games. But the Yotes are a balanced team (low scoring and dependent on the top 2 lines for almost all of the offense while the 3 and 4 lines play defense.)

The worry is that Bryz keeps the Wings in check and the Yotes score 2 or 3 goals a game and end up winning a few. This will be a low scoring series.

Wings in 5.

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They're a cinderella team. Those are always dangerous. They want to prove all the doubters wrong. They'll be very motivated and work their butts off.

Their roster doesn't look terribly impressive aside from Bryzgalov, but they've got some talented d-men, a good leader in Doan, dangerous scorers in Wolski and the red-hot Stempniak.. and overall just a hard-working, tough team to play against.

I expect every game to be close.. in the end the Wings should be stronger because of experience and hopefully killing them with puck-possession, but if they can't score on Bryz early it could turn ugly.

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Wings will have to come out flying if they want to win this series. The Yotes have won about 85% of their games when scoring first and 95% when leading after 1, so if our boys don't get out there right off the start, we're done. This kind of stat would be even more amplified with the young guys on Phoenix getting confidence early they'll settle in all that much better.

Also thinking that if the Wings can steal one of the first 2 they've got the series easily, but we'll see.

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I actually think this will be a great primer for J-Ho and the Wings in general.

The Yotes are tenacious this year, work hard as hell for everything they get. The problem a stated is top shelf talent to get the money goals, the clutch scoring is definitely missing and the Wings have it in spades.

I think the Yotes will put a lot of pressure on Howard but with the lack of scoring punch I see the Wings handling it and Howard has an easier time with the first round than say if they faced Vancouver which has a potent offense, and natural goal scorers as well as clutch goals scorers. Plus Sammy always manages something in the post season!

All in all I could not be happy with the way the Season worked out (given the place the Wings were in a month and a half ago) and the post season match up, for me is like last years first round match up. Hard working talented team riding a really hot netminder. The difference the BJ's had Nash, and the Wings were a different team last year.

Good warm up round for the Wings, they are already playing post season style hockey.

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